A PUBLIC meeting will be held next week to discuss plans to revamp Horwich Leisure Centre — with claims residents have “serious concerns” about the plans.

The meeting has been organised by campaign group Horwich First, which believes residents have concerns about the designs for the new centre as well as a perceived lack of public consultation.

Plans have been submitted which, if approved, will see a new £10 million leisure centre built on the site of the current centre’s car park in Victoria Road.

But Horwich First is calling on the council to “take a step back” and place the entire project on hold until “proper public consultation” is carried out.

A spokesman for the group said: “All the groups we have spoken to are very unhappy that absolutely no public consultation has taken place.

“Neither the community nor those that use the leisure centre were aware of these plans until a few days before the open evenings — only to discover on the very day of the first open evening that these plans had been submitted.

“Groups and teams who use the centre have serious concerns that the supposed ‘bigger and better’ leisure centre is in fact 'smaller and not so much better’ with reduced capacity and facilities which will not meet the demands of the existing users, let alone the expected 5 to 7 thousand extra people expected to come to this area with new housing developments.”

Councillors have argued that the £10 million council-led investment will create a valuable new facility for Horwich.

Town council leader Cllr Joyce Kellet said: “I don’t think negativity helps, it is a bit silly because we are getting something that people will love to have in their area.

“We should be happy that Bolton is spending this amount in Horwich — this will be a jewel in the crown for the town.”

The public meeting will take place from 7pm on Monday, April 11, at the Horwich RMI venue in Chorley New Road, Horwich.

Anyone who wants to contact the group can do so on horwichleisuredevelopment@gmail.com